Birthday Bus

A market on the way.
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Birthdays aren't meant to start at 5:30am but unfortunately for Sean, this one did.  We were heading to Baguio to get a bus for Manila.  Our lesson learnt for the day was to arrive at least half an hour before the bus leaves or else you get a crappy back seat for six hours.  Also, Adrienne discovered that a cold mandi in the mountains isn't her idea of fun although it does provide motivation for getting ready. Paying P135 pp for the bus we managed to get tortuous roads with stunning views.  Climbing over high mountains we were amazed how much farming was going on.  The steep hillsides had numerous terraces all growing cabbages and rice.

Our bus. From the annoying backseat.
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We arrived in Baguio at lunchtime and we promplty went about finding an overnight bus to Manila.  It didn't take long for us to find one leaving at 11pm for P265 pp, though no air conditioning.  There was a good restaurant called Jack's that provided tasty affordable meals.  Because we had a fair bit of time to kill, it was off to Burnham Park.  It's the centrepiece of the city and part of the American efforts to create a pleasantly cool administrative city for this part of their colony.  It turns out that Baguio is also the strawberry capital and they were cheap!  We were tempted but even P30 per 1/2 kg couldn't convince us to buy some after seeing all of the flies crawling all over them.  Instead Sean tried some barbequed pig's intestine: he spat them out faster than the silkworm larvae.  We don't think that this delicacy would take off in NZ.

Mountains that we'd just driven around.
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We did not have enough time to see the city, but it looked interesting - cool climate, an awesome market and the best looking carrots we'd seen.  We tried a taste sensation - McRice burger.  It's like a normal burger but with rice buns instead of bread.  Really, really good.  Internet and a birthday beer took up the evening before jumping on the bus.